Bellator 74's Jordan Smith on the roadmap back from a knockout loss

Twice in Jordan Smith’s five-year pro career, he’s picked himself up from the canvas after being forcibly put there. Both times, he’s had the same thought.

“You get up going, ‘What the hell happened? I barely had anything to do,'” Smith told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio).

Following his second career knockout loss, Smith returns to the cage to meet the highly-hyped Andrey Koreshkov at Bellator 74, which takes place tonight at Caesar’s Atlantic City in Atlantic City, N.J.

Smith won’t lie and say it was an easy road back to tonight’s fight. Each time you’re consciousness is taken from you, there are demons to confront moving forward.

“Those are the ones that really gnaw at your confidence,” he said. You get really prepared for a fight, and then that happens to you and you’re just like, really? Then you go back to the drawing board, back to the cage, back to the gym, and tell yourself that’s not going to happen any more.”

David Rickels put him in this position in the quarterfinals of Bellator’s season 6 welterweight tourney. Smith expected a ground game and instead was met by an aggressive striker who swarmed with punches. Before he knew it, the fight was over.

It was different than the first time he was stopped. Against WEC vet Tim McKenzie, he fought, he said, angry and stupid, marching back into an exchange to catch the same punch he’d caught moments earlier. The second time, he was too relaxed.

Both experiences prompted soul searching. But after Rickels, Smith was able to experience something completely unreachable to most fighters. It was nonetheless something that instilled faith that was waning after his setback.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, with whom Smith shares a manager in Ed Soares, brought him to Brazil to help prepare for a fight with Chael Sonnen at UFC 147. Smith simply didn’t have time to focus on his problems.

“Anderson has a lot of faith in my ability, and that’s the one of the reasons he asks me to be in a training camp, especially against a southpaw like Chael Sonnen,” Smith said. “To be there with guys who are without argument the best in the world, and to have them want you there because they believe in you, is a huge confidence builder.”

Silva, who’s a virtual lock for the UFC Hall of Fame, also taught Smith about the mental side of fighting.

“It’s all about positive motivation,” Smith said. “I used to fight because I was an angry person, and I used to have a lot of aggression I had to take out. And you’ve got to figure going to the gym every day angry and pissed off about what’s happening in your life, it’s not a real sustainable kind of motivation. You get burnt out on that real quick. So for me, it’s been about changing that anger into a positive motivation.”

Smith now feels readier than ever to bounce back against the undefeated Koreshkov, whose arrival is part of a recent wave of Russian talent signed to Bellator.

“When you look at the facts, I’ve had twice as many fights as Andrey,” he said. “I believe I’ve fought tougher guys than Andrei, and I think I’ve beaten tougher guys. I know he comes from a great camp and has great standup, but I also know that there’s plenty of holes in his game, just like there were when I was 10-0. And I’m going to exploit those holes, and I’m going to be the winner.

“Everybody tells themselves they can get caught. When it happens to you, it’s a different case. But we’ve come a long way from the Rickels fight, mentally and physically and emotionally, and I’m back on track. I’m ready to show the whole world what I’m actually capable of.”

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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